The term Human Factors refers to the environmental, organisational and job factors, and human and individual characteristics, which influence behaviour at work. Human Factors studies provide an understanding of the factors that can affect human performance.

Performance can be affected by factors associated with the person (motivation, fatigue, etc.), the job itself (the working environment, having the correct tools and procedures, etc.) and the organisation (work pressures, culture, etc.). These factors are termed Performance Influencing Factors (PIF). For critical tasks, defined as tasks that must be performed correctly each time otherwise serious consequences may occur, we must ensure that these factors are considered in a robust and systematic manner. Tools used to assess the risks are Task Analysis and Human Reliability Analysis (HRA) which operate in a similar fashion to other risk assessments.

For COMAH sites the assessment of Human Factors is an essential part of the risk assessment process. You need to understand which activities are critical to safety and what can be done to optimise human performance to protect people and the environment.

Our highly skilled consultants can help you to tackle error reduction in a structured and proactive way, and make it an integral part of the Safety Management System.

We can help you by:

Employing both qualitative and quantitative Human Reliability Assessments, sometimes known as Human HAZOPs

Feeding the results of assessments into traditional engineering risk assessment tools and methodologies such as Event Trees and Fault Trees

By applying proven Human Factors techniques, grounded in the principles of human and organisational psychology, we can help you to manage the risk to your business and ensure compliance with regulatory requirements at every level, from site management to operational personnel.